


None Will Do You Harm

by ForbiddenInk



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Admit it Ciel you like him a LITTLE bit, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Light Angst, M/M, Nightmares, Past Rape/Non-con, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romantic Fluff, Sebastian Ships It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-08-23 10:17:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20241220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForbiddenInk/pseuds/ForbiddenInk
Summary: Ciel is annoyed that Alois, after BEGGING him to agree to this afternoon outing, is being petulant and refusing to leave his room. When he goes to confront him about this, however, he finds a very upset Trancy and can't help but try to find out what's going on.





	None Will Do You Harm

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to write something angsty and fluffy and cute because I ship them but I also like writing this kind of thing. It's therapeutic for me. This isn't how I usually write their relationship and interactions (there's usually a lot more salt and sass and bitchiness) but I like this anyway. Starts out angsty, turns into fluff, and yes, Sebastian totally ships it.

Ciel grumbled quietly to himself as he marched down the long hall of the red and gold Trancy manor, still wearing his hat and overcoat and carrying his skull-topped cane in one hand. He was already beginning to regret having agreed to this engagement at all and was irritated by how easily Sebastian could manage to influence his decisions. The blonde boy’s obstinance was hardly Ciel’s fault, and he shouldn’t have to apologize for nor deal with it! This was all utterly pointless, he knew, and giving in to it would only encourage more behavior of this kind. Despite this, he didn’t stop until he’d reached the familiar gilded bedroom door. Ciel raised his cane and rapped impatiently on the door with the top of it, listening against the surface as he called out.

“Alois? Are you in there? Come out here, we haven’t the time to waste on your childish folly.” He lectured him harshly. However, the earl was surprised at the response he got.

“Go away, Phantomhive! Just go home, I’m not coming out!” A shaky voice called back, breaking on the last three words. While it wasn’t too unusual for Alois to throw dramatic fits and even cry, they never involved locking himself in his room or sending Ciel away; the point of them was to get attention. He didn’t think he’d ever heard the older boy sound so genuinely upset.

“Alois? What’s going on?” He knocked again, though this time he used his knuckles and was a bit less demanding. “May I come in?”

“No! Leave me alone!” Alois shouted back, clearly through tears. He heard a squeaky sniffle through the door and shook his head, ignoring the boy’s command as he entered the bedroom. It took Ciel a minute to find the boy, but his dark blue gaze widened just barely as he took in the scene he found; the blonde was curled into a ball on the floor in the corner next to his bed, his knees hugged up to his chest and face buried in his crossed arms atop them as his shoulders shook subtly. Ciel approached him quietly, unsure of what had happened to cause this. It was as he was kneeling down in front of Alois that the blonde looked up with a startled gasp, and Ciel caught sight of his red and tearstained face and the wetness still sparkling in his ice-blue eyes. Once he was knelt down to Alois’s level, Ciel began to stretch a hand out toward him.

“Don’t touch me!” Alois warned him quickly, pleading rather than ordering him, and he cowered away. The younger boy froze, surprised again, and slowly retracted his hand.

“What’s the matter?” He asked him, quite confused and a little concerned about how out of character this was. Alois shook his head and angled his body away from Ciel, scrubbing at his face with his already damp-with-tears sleeve. He didn’t answer, merely repeated his previous plea again weakly. “Alright, I won’t,” the younger promised him placatingly before he glanced around the room.

“Can we at least move to the sitting area, please?” At the shake of the other’s head, he tried something else. “The bed, then?” He figured that if he could get Alois to leave the corner, that alone would be a positive accomplishment. He didn’t often like putting up with Alois and his personality, but something about seeing him this way felt very wrong, and Ciel was determined to find out what could have brought this about. The blonde watched him warily, indecisive, and slowly nodded his head just a bit in agreement. He let Ciel stand first before he followed shakily and climbed onto the bed right up next to the pillows, leaving a fair foot or two between the two of them. He still didn’t look at the younger boy as he sat there sniffling and wiping at his face with his sleeve, slow tears still continually streaking down his cheeks. Ciel sat on the edge of the bed, pulling one leg up so that he could face Alois, and removed his hat.

The two sat silently for a moment as Ciel gave Alois time to compose himself a bit more and he tried to think of what to say. He still had no idea what was wrong, and he figured that was where he ought to start. Gaze returning to the blonde, he saw that his face was still red and tearstained, but at least it was dry and he was now staring down at his hands in his lap.

“Alois?” Ciel began. “What happened? I thought you were excited about today.” Alois crossed his arms around himself and closed his eyes briefly, then he nodded.

“I was. I-” His voice was still uneven and just a bit defensive, and he didn’t finish whatever he’d been about to say, shaking his head. “Never mind. You can go home. Sorry for making you come all the way out here.” But his words sounded insincere. Ciel could tell he was closing up again and going cold on him, and he knew there’d be no getting him to explain himself once that happened. If he didn’t find the cause of this behavior and resolve it, he had no doubt it would continue to happen, which wouldn’t be good for anyone. However, the dark-haired boy had no idea what he could do or say without understanding the situation.

“You don’t have to talk to me,” Ciel assured him calmly as Alois kept his eyes down. “However, not many people have as much potential to understand your situation as well as I might. I know you’ve been through a lot, just as I have. As you said yourself, we’re practically the same.” It was an unpleasant memory for Ciel to bring up, but it turned out to be effective as Alois finally looked up at him with a guarded expression. The younger looked him in the eye, trying to appear his most genuine and reassuring, and the blonde actually held his gaze for a moment before he looked away again while biting hard on the very edge of his lip. There was an extended pause between them.

“I-I suppose…” Ciel waited patiently for Alois to elaborate. “I-It’s just…the nightmares.” He whispered. The younger didn't react outwardly, although he understood the emotional effect of such nightmares all too well. “I can’t escape them…no matter what I do, they still won’t leave me alone!” Alois wrapped his arms around himself and squeezed his eyes shut tight. Another glistening tear ran from the corner of the blonde’s eye as Ciel watched. While he never voiced it, Ciel could relate to what Alois was saying more than he would ever admit. It had been years since he witnessed the deaths of his parents, and even longer since Alois had been through whatever it was that had traumatized him in his childhood, but he knew how long the nightmares could last for the both of them. 

“Of course. The fires, and the deaths...they tend to root themselves deeply, and show their faces often.” Alois looked back up at Ciel upon hearing the tone he spoke these words with. It had never really occurred to the elder boy that the younger might relate, but that statement had been clear implication enough, even without a direct admission. The blonde simply nodded and scrubbed at his tearstained face again. Staring down at his lap again, he added in a rough voice,

“Those aren’t the worst, though.” Ciel’s eyebrow raised as he heard this. The only thing that the younger earl had been aware of that the two had in common was the fiery manner of their respective families’ deaths, but perhaps what the elder was referring to was something like what Ciel had experienced in the custody of the cult.

Alois seemed increasingly reluctant to open up about whatever nightmares were troubling him so deeply, hesitating for long enough that Ciel almost became convinced that the other wouldn’t end up telling him anything at all. He was glancing at his hat, wondering if he should see himself out, when he heard the soft intake of breath which indicated Alois was finally going to speak. 

“In between the village and becoming ‘Alois Trancy’, I...I was a slave.” He stuttered out. Ciel’s expression lit with understanding, this statement confirming what he’d been thinking about the similarity in their experiences.

“I understand. The same thing happened to me. I-I was kidnapped by a cult, tortured and forced to work as a slave until the day I summoned Sebastian-” 

Alois abruptly cut him off. “Not _ that _ kind of slave.”

“......O-Oh.”

There was a pause as the blonde boy’s meaning sank in and Ciel suddenly understood just what he was referring to. Once again he was out of his league and at a loss for how to help, but he was beginning to realize now just why Alois seemed to have been hurt so much worse by the trauma he’d experienced, and it wasn’t because he was any less strong than Ciel.

Mind returning to the present, the younger earl looked back up at the blonde to see that he’d broken down in silent sobs again, his arms wrapped around himself as he shook slightly. Ciel felt a pang of sympathy—though those were few and far between as it was, especially when it related to the Trancy earl—but he felt it was deserved this time. Unsurely he moved a little closer to the elder boy, looking for a way to comfort him but not sure if he was still as afraid of being touched as he’d seemed when Ciel had first entered the room. And thinking about it, the boy certainly couldn’t blame him for feeling that way. 

A moment later Alois managed to catch his breath enough to speak again, and he powered through his tears to tell Ciel what he could manage.

“When I came here, to the Trancy manor, I was being sold as a sex slave to the old man who owned the estate. He had no children, his wife was a spineless shadow of a thing, and it was just me and five other boys and the old man, alone, every _ day _.” He paused to let out another sob and attempt to catch his breath again. As this had gone on, Ciel had moved a little closer. 

“From the moment he first saw me, he called me ugly and disgusting, he hated me immediately. So the only way for me to avoid being beaten, possibly even to death as he did with one of the other boys, was to become his favourite.” It seemed to be getting harder for the earl to speak the more he continued, his voice beginning to shake more and more.

“Alois, you don’t have to tell-” Ciel began to assure him, in an attempt to relieve him of the pain he was being caused, but he pressed on as if he hadn’t heard the younger boy say a thing.

“One by one the other boys left us. One fell ill and died, a couple were sold or traded off. By then I was being treated as his son…well, almost.” Alois’s eyes finally met Ciel’s, who had by this point moved up beside the blonde boy on the bed. “I-I didn’t have a choice. He was so..._ violent _ , and he treated me...treated us, the last remaining boy and I...he was _ sick _, I-I had to!” The blonde could clearly see Ciel’s confusion as to what he was referring to, and he gulped down another couple of deep breaths, anger at the memory overtaking his remorse and making it easier for him to breathe before he forced himself to speak again. 

“I-I poisoned him. I put it in his wine at dinner, and then that night I summoned Claude.” Alois reluctantly glanced over at Ciel, expecting to see horror or the like on his face, but instead found that the younger boy didn’t hold all that much surprise in his grim expression. 

“I still had to convince him to name me as his legitimate son in his will. I kissed his arse for those two weeks as he died, more than I _ ever _ had, even though the entire time I wanted _ so badly _ to beat the _ shit _ out of him. I wanted to make him feel the same pain and humiliation as I had,” As he described this, Alois’s sobbing slowly started up again, his emotion once again changing as it went from anger back to the broken fear and remorse it had been before. “I wanted him to bear the same bruises and scars I h-had to-” his voice broke off there as he hung his head against his chest and broke down in tears, crying too hard to continue talking.

“Al-” Ciel had only just begun to say something to comfort the older boy when he abruptly leaned over and planted his face in the younger’s shoulder, shaking with sobs. The earl was caught off guard and for a moment he didn’t move, unsure of what to do. But after another pause and seeing that the blonde’s tears did not seem to be letting up, Ciel slowly placed one arm over the elder’s shoulder and the other hand on the side of the blonde-haired head, not speaking but allowing Alois to cry it out, not even complaining (not out loud, at least) as the boy soaked the shoulder of Ciel’s coat with tears and snot.

The two boys sat there at the edge of Alois’s bed for what felt like hours; they both lost track. The elder earl cried until his throat was raw and he had completely exhausted himself, and throughout it all Ciel didn’t say a word. Eventually, things had calmed down enough that Alois sat up and began wiping at his face with his sleeve again. Ciel quickly stopped him.

“Don’t do that,” He scolded, grabbing the boy’s wrist and pulling his arm down away from his face. Ciel produced a handkerchief from his coat pocket and handed it to Alois, who gave a slightly appreciative, slightly annoyed look and accepted it wordlessly. As he cleaned up, Ciel stood from the bed and stretched, wandering over to the sitting area and lighting the candles there. Glancing out the window, he saw that dark clouds had moved in and made the afternoon dim and appear gloomy. He had no idea what time it was but figured that it was likely someone would be coming to check on them any time now, and Ciel wanted tea.

“Should we send for tea?” He asked Alois as the elder boy returned his handkerchief and sat on the plush sofa next to the fire. The blonde nodded quietly, and Ciel frowned as he saw that Alois wasn’t totally back to himself yet. The dark-haired boy moved over and sat down next to Alois, giving him a gently questioning look rather than speaking. When the blonde looked over at him, his expression was more tired than anything.

“...Thank you for listening.” He suddenly spoke up, looking back to the fire. “I try to talk to Claude, but he doesn’t really care. None of them really care.” There was an extended pause before Alois looked at Ciel again. “But you...you do care. Right?” He looked so exhausted, but there was a small glimmer of hope that Ciel could see in his eyes. The earl hesitated, always having been reluctant to admit to such things, especially in cases dealing with Alois Trancy, but he eventually gave a stoic nod and forced a small smile. Alois looked immensely relieved and pleased with that answer, and he looked back to the fire with a tired smile on his face. 

Ciel guessed that Alois hadn’t intended for it to happen, but several minutes later he noticed the elder’s eyelids drooping as he started to fall asleep where he sat. The boy placed a hand on Alois’s shoulder to steady him, and as he felt the other’s weight begin to slump, he figured the easiest option would be to just lay him down across the sofa with his head in Ciel’s lap. As he drifted off, he mumbled something which the dark-haired earl could’ve sworn was along the lines of, “You’re a good friend, Ciel.”

~~<><>~~

As soon as his young master had disappeared irritably up the stairs of the manor, Claude had advised Sebastian that considering his own master’s state (Claude had been chased out of the room with screaming and a few flying shoes when he'd attempted to speak to the crying earl shortly before the Phantomhive carriage had arrived), either Ciel would reappear within two minutes, or the butlers could expect them to take a considerably long time. Once it became apparent that it would be the latter, they had given up on standing in the entryway waiting and retired to the sitting room.

The afternoon carried on to be almost painfully uneventful and even a bit awkward as the two demons puttered around the den, drinking tea and hardly speaking a single word, to each other or otherwise. Sebastian spent the entire time watching the clock and waiting for an appropriate time to go check on the earls while still giving them plenty of time for whatever Claude supposed was happening up there. 

Eventually, it was nearing time for evening tea, and Sebastian, eager for something productive to do which was hopefully also _ away _ from Claude, decided to go up and see if the boys were hungry. And luckily for him, just as he reached the door to Alois’s room, he heard his young master ask the former if they should send for tea. Sebastian took that as the perfect indication that he should begin preparing their tea so that it would be ready before they even asked.

As soon as the tea was finished brewing and he had managed to convince Claude to leave him alone to do this himself, Sebastian set everything up on a tray and carried it up to Alois’s room. When he entered, however, he was quite surprised to see the earls occupying the sitting area already, but Alois asleep and with his head resting in Ciel’s lap. Sebastian hesitated for only a moment upon entering the room, immediately resuming his task and setting the tea tray silently on the table before them. 

Ciel raised a finger to his lips in an unnecessary gesture telling Sebastian to remain quiet and allow Alois to continue sleeping, and the demon nodded in acknowledgment. 

“Do you require anything else, my lord?” Sebastian whispered.

“Have the kitchen prepare something he’ll like. I’m sure it’s been ages since he’s eaten.” Came the whispered response, as Ciel didn’t move his hand from where it rested protectively on top of Alois’s head but glanced down at him thoughtfully. 

“Dinner will come around shortly, my lord,” The demon reminded the boy. Ciel looked back up at Sebastian with one of his especially serious frowns, the type which his butler knew well.

“Did I hesitate, Sebastian, or did I give you an order just now?” The demon bowed his head in acknowledgment and left the room to carry out what he’d been assigned without another word against it. As he closed the door behind him and retreated down the hall, he couldn’t help but smile to himself.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading, please do leave kudos and comments if you enjoyed!


End file.
